A-Musing: My First Week as a Superhero

I can still remember first hearing the words, "DC Universe Online".

It seems like so long ago, and fresh on the heels of announcements such as Star Trek Online, Lord of the Rings Online and even Pirates of the Caribbean Online, so at first it seemed like just another jump onto an already over-capacity bandwagon.

And initially I was indifferent. No, scratch that. I was actually completely disinterested now that I recall. I was not one for MMORPGs, having briefly flirted with City of Heroes, another superhero game, and found it lacking.

In my (albeit limited) experience, online games are simply addictive, and possess no engaging qualities beyond the joy of character creation. It seemed like all the endless missions I send my character on were mind-numbingly repetitive, and even though his skills were improving, I was just pressing the same sequence of keys over and over again.

And I thought that DCUO would be no different. Even the idea of interacting with Batman, Superman, et al, was not enough to attract me. (If anything it put me off; I mean, how could I compete with those guys?!)

But as time took us closer and closer to that ever-changing release date, it became more apparent that DCUO was going to be something different. Something new.

The announcement that the game's main storyline was being written by Geoff Johns and the visual look of the game was being designed by Jim Lee was the first thing that raised my attention level. Those guys are two of the greatest creative talents in comics (although curiously they've never collaborated on an actual comic book) and I had always joked that they should write and draw everything at DC. Now they were, essentially.

I realised that this was quickly becoming quite a big deal.

So, when the game eventually arrived through my letter box (four days late, thanks to Royal Mail) I could not wait to play.

But, because I ordered it for PC, wait I did. It was light when I started loading and dark when it finished. What are the advantages of PC gaming again?

Anyway; this game is everything they promised and mo-- No, wait. It's just everything they promised. But that's still pretty damn awesome on its own.

I quickly skipped over the introductory video, which is mind-blowing, but I had seen it about a million times on the Internet and was eager to get started.

Character creation is straight to the point: You can make your own custom choices, or get right into the game with their "Inspired By" mode, freeing you from the agony of choice by offering a few DC characters for you to emulate in appearance and ability.

But I choose custom, 'cause to me, creating your own personal character is as much a part of the game as anything else.

Some of the choices are a little bit more slim than others, no doubt in preparation for the first expansion pack, but there's still plenty for your would-be superhero (or villain).

Naming my guy "Silent Vigil" (look me up if you're ever in Gotham), I gave him gadgets as a power and a bow as a weapon (just to compare ranged attacks to City of Heroes, and 'cause I like Green Arrow), with acrobatics as his movement mode.

With that, I was plunged into the training level: Escape from Brainiac's ship. Unfortunately, this level is the same for every character you create, and does get a little tedious after a while, which somewhat deters you from creating multiple characters.

After that, it was on to Gotham City, because I selected Batman as my mentor, to no-one's surprise. Your mentor (Batman, Superman or Wonder Woman for heroes; Joker, Lex Luthor or Circe for villains) determines your origin -- tech, meta or magic -- and what kind of missions and equipment you receive.

The developers of this game had always said that their main goal was to craft an action-orientated role-play game, and I say, "Mission accomplished."

There's none of that monotonous clicking found in most RPGs. Here, you have to apply a measure of skill, selecting the correct sequence of moves for the right situation, and a seemingly infinite variety of scenarios exists in the fighting styles alone.

But that's not to say that this game lacks the RP factor. The small stories are quite engaging to the DC fan, even if they don't always make sense, and it's genuinely exciting to interact with these characters.
Fighting Gorilla Grodd alongside the Flash, and having him congratulate me afterwards is a fanboy dream come true.

There's also plenty of side missions to keep you busy, including basic exploration missions (sponsored by Booster Gold!) which take you all over Gotham and Metropolis and make use of the incredible movement modes (flight, super-speed and acrobatics). I don't think this game will ever stop being fun to play.

The only complaints I have an extremely minor or petty. I'm not one for teaming up with other players, but some missions seem to require it. After a certain level, you start getting missions from the other mentors, rendering your other characters null. And why is Circe a villain mentor instead of Cheetah, Wonder Woman's nemesis?

Regardless, DC Universe Online is well worth the wait. The long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long wait.